Barn Owl Imperial Brown Ale | Alameda Brewhouse

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User Ratings & Reviews

Reviews by lighthabit:

deep, deep dark blood orange color, dark brown is almost opaque, very little light shines thru. thick, clumpy, sticky lacing and thick, tenacious head look delicious, maintains a bit of foam in the center all the way thru the glass. smell is grass, faint smoke, a bit sharp . taste is dry grass, cocoa, clean and crisp hops, bit of malt, would have liked a bit more malt to back everything up, but overall tasty. smooth, a bit bitter and dry for my tastes for this style, but still a nice effort from alameda. summary: tastes good, looks great.

More User Reviews:

22oz bottle, decidedly weird-looking disembodied owl visage on the label. I missed hitting this brewery when I was in PDX a few years back, but then, that's not exactly hard to do in that burg.

This beer pours a murky, very dark reddish amber hue, with two solid fingers of foamy, frothy, and somewhat creamy beige head, which leaves some pleasantly thorough layered snow rime lace around the glass as things drop away.

It smells of rather nutty and bready roasted caramel malt, with a touch of biscuity graininess, wet ash, and peppy earthy, leafy hops. The taste is more toasted caramel malt, crackery biscuits, salted toffee, dry mocha, smoldering ash in a rainstorm, a hint of orange-infused chocolate, grassy, leafy hops, and the slightest suggestion of metallic alcohol.

The bubbles are understated, but still capable of keeping things on the straight and narrow, the body a densely stoic medium weight, well smooth, and smugly creamy. It finishes on the sweet side, the nuttiness making a resurgence among the lingering bready caramel malt, waning cinder notes, and steadily wallflowerish hops. Not much sign of the amped-up booze, so there is that, as well.

A tasty enough roasted American brown ale, the new world affectation here being the extra ABV, rather then any huge hop upswing. The dry ash character might drag on me after a while, but for now, it lends a nice counterpoint to all that malt, unfettered by the aforementioned underwhelming hop bitterness. Worthy of try, if you think you like your brown ales.

Poured into a tulip, the appearance was a semi-dark brown color with a finger’s worth of off-white foamy head that dissipated at a decent pace. Spider-web lacing slides into the beer nicely. The aroma takes on smooth crisp sweet nuttiness rolling over a sweet bready/biscuity soothing quality. Sly milk chocolate. Some caramel malt. Quick earthy hops underneath. The flavor blends the sweet malty notes over the earthy hops, remains sweet all throughout. Smooth silky nutty sweet to chocolatey aftertaste rolling into the finish. On the palate, this one sat about a light to medium on the body with a fair sessionability about it. Oddly enough, the ABV doesn’t seem to hit hard. Soft carbonation. Overall, imperialized brown ale, yes, that’s exactly what this is.

I grew up in the neighborhood of the Alameda brewhouse, on my last visit to Portland, I was excited to pick up a couple bottles before I headed home. This had an excellent pour, the head was very tight, caramel in color and about two fingers thick. The beer was mahogany in color and very clear. the smell was very sweet, with hints of roasted hops in the background. It had an excellent malty flavor, not overly sweet with strong flavors of caramel and toffee. The beer is very well balanced in the mouth as well. This beer wasn't my favorite of the brown ales, but it was very good. I felt like the flavor was a little on the strong side. It was nicely balanced, not overly bitter and was quite beautiful in the glass. It's not something that I would drink more than one of in a sitting, but It was very tasty and a good representation of the style.